The present invention relates in general to semiconductor test fixtures and, more particularly, a semiconductor test fixture that automatically corrects any loss of test contact continuity.
Semiconductor circuit test fixtures are used to functionally exercise semiconductor circuits coming off a semiconductor fabrication line. During test, electrical signals are applied to the input pins of the semiconductor circuit and the corresponding output signals at its output pins are compared against known good responses. When all the test signals on the output pins of the semiconductor circuit match the predetermined responses the circuit under test is accepted. If any output signal should fail to match the expected response, the circuit under test is rejected.
Sometimes, the circuit under test fails because one or more of the leads on the input or output pins is not making good electrical contact with the leads of the test fixture. The circuit under test is rejected even though it may be a good circuit. When this occurs it may be necessary to adjust the contact leads between the circuit under test and the test fixture and rerun the test to avoid rejecting a good circuit. In the past the testing operation is stopped while an operator makes manual adjustments to the contacts. Frequent manual adjustments to the contact leads substantially slows down the testing process.
Hence, a need exists to automatically adjust the contact leads of a test fixture without adversely effecting the testing process efficiency.